Hospital group appeals to people to refrain from attending ED unless it is urgent
Heading into the long Easter bank holiday weekend, all sites across UL Hospitals Group remain very busy, with continued high Emergency Department attendances and inpatient admissions at University Hospital Limerick (UHL).
The group said in a statement that as they continued to balance demand for emergency healthcare with the needs of inpatients while safely maintaining time-critical and other elective activity, they were asking people with less than urgent healthcare needs to consider attending Injury Units and all other healthcare options to help avoid inevitably long waits at the ED.
Opening hours for Ennis and Nenagh Injury Units are 8am-8pm, and St John’s Injury Unit 8am-7pm. Full contacts for the units and details of their services are available on the HSE website at https://www2.hse.ie/ services/injury-units/
During March, a daily average of 226 patients attended the ED, exceeding by 16% the average 195 daily attendances recorded in 2019, the last full year prior to the pandemic, the statement said.
The general rise in demand for emergency care persists into this month. On Monday, some 234 people attended, followed by 256 on Tuesday, and 239 in the 24 hour period to 8am this Thursday morning
"Given this ongoing level of demand, and the high level of activity during the last bank holiday weekend in mid-March, we have continued working to our escalation framework this week to create surge capacity and maximise numbers of inpatient beds available across all our sites," they said.
The statement said that additional ward rounding was ongoing so that appropriate patients can be discharged or transferred to Ennis, Nenagh and St John’s Hospital. They were also working with their colleagues in HSE Mid West Community Healthcare in order to further expedite suitable discharges home or to community care beds.
"In common with hospitals across the country facing into this long holiday weekend, we have requested that consultants and senior clinical decision makers are available over the weekend in order to support discharge and movement of patients," they said.
"Anyone with a serious injury or unexpected illness should come to ED or call 999/112, but with all sites in a state of escalation, it’s is likely that anyone presenting to ED with less than urgent healthcare needs will face a lengthy wait. In addition to Injury Units, people who are less than acutely unwell should also consider GPs, out-of-hours GP services and local pharmacies before attending the ED," the statement said.